George Washington and Teeth from Enslaved People

What do we know about the transaction in May 1784?  The transaction is recorded under the section for May 1784, but no specific date is given. From April 26 to May 23, 1784, George Washington was away from Mount Vernon on a trip to Philadelphia. The accounts of financial transactions at Mount Vernon were being kept by his plantation manager, Lund Washington.  From late April through May 1784, the French dentist Le Mayeur was staying in the Alexandria area and visited Mount Vernon.

The transaction is recorded in two places in the financial records. Under the heading, “Cash p[ai]d on Acc[oun]t of Genrl. Washington,” Lund Washington recorded the following transaction in the journal of accounts (a simple listing of payments and receipts as they occurred) : “To [cash] p[ai]d Negroes for 9 Teeth, on acc[oun]t of the French Dentis [sic] Doctr Lemay [sic]   £ 6.2.0.”  This same transaction was subsequently transcribed in George Washington’s ledger of accounts (which used double entry bookkeeping to organize information on a client by client basis), as a credit to Lund: “By Cash pd Negroes for 9 Teeth on Acc[oun]t of Dr Lemoin [sic].” In both cases, the explicit notation “on the account” of the dentist indicates Le Mayeur received the teeth to use for his clients. ¹

The names of the enslaved people who sold their teeth are not recorded. We do not know if they were forced or pressured to give up their teeth by Mount Vernon’s plantation manager, Lund Washington, dentist Jean Pierre LeMayeur, or others. The threat of punishment or retaliation to coerce behavior was always present for enslaved people, and they could have felt compelled to provide teeth even if they were not physically forced to do so.

During this time, Le Mayeur advertised in the Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser his availability to perform tooth transplants and also offered to purchase teeth.

His patients during this period included George Washington and other clients in the Alexandria area. ² He may have used the teeth on one of his local patients or carried them with him as he moved his practice throughout the U.S. seeking new patients.